Lyon Attractions

Venue: Musée d'Art Contemporain    When: Daily; not Mon

Situated in the futuristic Cité Internationale, the Musée d'Art Contemporain was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, one half of the notorious duo responsible for Paris' Pompidou Centre. Its permanent collection, including the largest ensemble of post-1960 installations by European artists, defies traditional definitions of art, offering new perspectives on society and the imaginary.

Inaugarated in 1985, the museum was the result of a 1983 town decision to create a new modern art collection complementary to the Musée des Beaux-Arts. Piano's hybrid exterior, combining a 1930s-style façade facing onto the fronting park, with brick extensions, disguises a unified, wholly flexible space inside. All the inner walls can be dismantled, thus catering to the diverse needs of demanding exhibitors. The museum is linked to a massive cinema complex by an inner glass wall.

Since its opening the museum has not looked back, having organised over 100 exhibitions and edited 70 catalogues. Many of the installations were directly created by artists on location - in the museum, for the museum, offering a unique set-up. On the Rhone side of the building there is a "Wall of Images" which constantly displays a series of video clips about the city, simultaneously broadcast at the museum's metro stop.

The museum is a prime crowd-puller to la Cité Internationale, the ultra-modern area in the north-east of Lyon, chosen as location for the 1996 G7 summit and home to large-scale commercial and cultural centres including le Palais de Congres and a vamped-up casino.